Congress of Vienna: What and Why?

In History we went over what would have happened at the Congress of Vienna. The Congress of Vienna was a meeting of countries trying to resolve big problems. In the activity in class we were given three choices and we tried to pick the one that Prince Clemens von Metternich, the Austrian host of the Congress, would have picked. The first problem concerned the map of Europe. And how the countries would have agreed to reorganize these countries after Napoleons defeat. The choice that was chosen was choice B. That choice explained that the French territory would go back to its prior boundaries. Prussia, Netherlands, Russia and Austria gained more land in this outcome. This made a balance of power between Britain, Prussia, France, Russia and Austria. This ensured one country could not take over the others. The second problem was, who would lead the countries? The outcome was that the brother of Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, would rule. This reestablished the Bourbon monarchy. This was the principle of legitimacy. That was when lawful; monarchs were restored. The third problem was what would happen if there were more revolutions? The solution was that the monarchs would make it more of an effort to stop the flow of revolution ideas. The Holy Alliance was also made, which meant that monarchs had a divine right to rule and revolution was treason against god. There was also the principle of intervention that was any country could help prevent another countries revolution.

The Principle of Intervention was used to help prevent the spreads of to much power and as well as the domination of one country over the other. It was also used to prevent revolutions. The whole concept of Principle of Intervention was that any country, not only the big countries, could send in troops to stop a revolution. This prevented the spread of unwanted ideas that the government didn’t want others to think of. It was a ideology used to restore peace and reinstate a monarchy if needed. This principle also played alongside the holy alliance. Which in short is that monarchs have divine right to rule and revolution is treason against god. That is why all the countries in the Congress of Vienna accepted to do this. They wanted to make sure something like Napoleon never happened again and that monarchy would always rule.

I think this is a great idea. Because the revolutions, which can possibly ruin a country as well as the ones around it, can be quickly prevented by the powers that country is surrounded by. There is a downfall though because this makes countries fight against each other. If two countries are allies and one has a revolution then its ally may attack it and kill many of its people. It forms a kind of distrust between countries. But there is the upside of the other countries would be in gratitude if you stopped a revolution. I think this is the right choice for the Congress of Vienna to make. Mostly because they do not want an accident like Napoleon to occur again. This way unlike Balance of Power gives power to all the countries not just the big select few (Russia, Austria, Prussia, Britain and France). It is odd that Balance of Power is just balancing power between five big countries not all of them.

Here you see the Congress of Vienna. A meeting of all the countries that have battled in the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Basler04/CV